Comprehensive Curriculum Program

A Guide to the Comprehensive Curriculum Program

Although students enter New York Law School with a range of academic backgrounds and experiences, there is no effective way to predict a student’s law school achievement until that student begins to perform in law school. Once a student takes a semester of classes and law school examinations, there is a basis for evaluating that student’s strengths, weaknesses, potential, and academic needs. After a year of law school, the basis for evaluation is even stronger.

Students whose grade point average places them in the bottom one-third of their class during the first year of law school need to strengthen their skills if they are to compete effectively and perform competently both in law school and as practicing attorneys. Skills essential to competent performance include reading, listening, writing, and speaking carefully and meticulously; retaining fully and accurately what is read and heard; comprehending cases, statutes, and other legal materials; and analyzing facts in relation to legal materials with disciplined creativity. The Comprehensive Curriculum Program is designed to help students who have not developed these skills sufficiently during the first year of law school to do so before they graduate.